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Islam Slimani joins Fenerbahce on a season-long loan

Algeria international Islam Slimani has joined Fenerbahce on a season-long loan from Leicester City. The 30-year-old has struggled to meet the demands of the Foxes over the past two seasons and he has now been offered a fresh opportunity to revive his career in the Turkish Super League. Shortly after joining Fenerbahce, Slimani told northerntouchsoccer.com: “Happy to start a new adventure with this great club Fenerbahce for whom I will give everything on the field. Thanks to my agents for this new challenge and especially, a great thanks to the fans for a magnificent welcome.”

Apart of Slimani, Leicester have also parted ways with Leonardo Ulloa, who has been allowed to join Mexican side Pachuca on a permanent basis. With their departures, Claude Puel’s have just two strikers in the form of Jamie Vardy and Kelechi Iheanacho and Shinji Okazaki could be the player called up from the bench to perform the back-up duties.

The east Midlands outfit have been losing members of their Premier League winning squad over the past couple of years and Riyad Mahrez was the latest to jump the ship this summer after joining Manchester City on a club-record move. Aside from Mahrez, Harry Maguire was also tipped to secure a big-club deal with Manchester United interested, but ultimately the Foxes made it clear that the centre-back was not for sale.

Leicester began their Premier League campaign with a 2-1 loss at Manchester United but there were plenty of positives from the encounter, given the Foxes managed to command the better possession and have more attempts on goal. The Foxes will now make the trip to the South Coast for the next league outing against Southampton and they should possess better ammunition upfront with Jamie Vardy likely to start after only making the bench at Old Trafford due to fitness concerns.